This paper discusses the critical importance of gender equity in the education sector, particularly in business schools, to foster social empowerment and inclusivity. It emphasises the need for a shift from merely achieving gender equality (equal rights and opportunities) to ensuring gender equity (fairness and justice). The paper explores current gender disparities in European business schools, including gender pay gaps, underrepresentation of women in leadership and decision-making roles, and minimal integration of gender in research. It highlights the crucial role of leadership in driving systemic change, implementing comprehensive gender equality plans, and fostering a culture of belonging through sustained commitment to equity and inclusion. The EQUAL4EUROPE project offers a framework for sustainable gender inclusion and recommends continuous efforts, including leadership commitment and monitoring progress through tools like the Inclusion Gap Instrument (IGI).

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“Gender equity in education stands as a cornerstone for fostering social empowerment and advancing towards a more inclusive society” (Kuteesa, Akpuokwe & Udeh, 2024: 631).

Introduction

In recent years there has been an increasing call for organisations generally, and the education sector in particular, to pursue gender equity in a manner that goes significantly beyond prior calls for the pursuit of gender equality. We make this case with particular reference to the definitions of gender equality and gender equity articulated in the Gender Equality in Academic and Research: GEAR Tool¹. The tool suggests gender equality is achieved when there are “equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys” while gender equity concerns the “provision of fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between women and men.” Where efforts to advance women were considered necessary to achieve gender balance (equality), this is no longer considered sufficient. Absent fairness and justice, numerical balance throughout an organisation is found to be inadequate as the building block for creating an inclusive culture and, ultimately, a sense of belonging for all. Increasingly, organisations of all types appreciate that achieving strategic and socially valued goals requires that they weave together diversity, equity, and inclusion to develop a sense of belonging amongst key stakeholders. They look to the education sector to provide graduates who will both fit into, and help drive, this sense of belonging!

Although the primary driver for increased gender equity (as well as in other dimensions of diversity) within the education sector might be considered to be in the interests of developing citizens, employees, and tomorrow’s employers, other key imperatives for business schools include enhancing diversity of thought and innovation, attracting top talent, reflecting market and workforce realities, addressing social justice, enhancing student outcomes, and meeting accreditation standards. Increased awareness of the myriad reasons for making equity and inclusion a signature aspect of many business school strategies has resulted from growing internal pressure, external market pressure, and from accreditation. However, transitioning from ‘talking the talk to walking the walk’ remains challenging for many. Unsurprisingly, this transition will require increasing levels of commitment from organisation leaders—as individuals and as a responsible collective.

Recognising both the imperative and the challenge, in 2019 the European Commission invited submissions for funding to develop gender equality plans in the fields of art, humanities, medicine, social sciences, business and management, and law. The EQUAL4EUROPE consortium of eight partner institutions received 3 million Euros over four years and completed its work in 2024 (EQUAL4EUROPE, 2020). In this chapter we sketch the current state of gender equality and inclusion in business schools across Europe using the knowledge gained from EQUAL4EUROPE supplemented by the latest insights from the European Institute for Gender Equality², Eurostat (2022)³ and the Financial Times business school rankings⁴. We provide recommendations on improving gender-balance in decision-making bodies, actions to be included in Gender Equality Plans (GEPs), and the crucial role of leadership to drive systemic change toward sustainable gender equity and inclusion.

Current State of Gender Equality and inclusion in European Business Schools

As part of the EQUAL4EUROPE project the prevailing status of gender equality at the six academic partners of the consortium (RSM, ESADE, ESMT, IEDC, INSEAD, and UNIBA) was investigated with a specific focus on five areas: 1) Composition of the schools; 2) Gender pay gap; 3) Integration of the sex/gender dimension in research and innovation; 4) Decision-making bodies and 5) Gender mainstreaming of policies (EQUAL4EUROPE, 2023a). The main findings are summarised and discussed below.

Composition of the Schools

Understanding the composition of organisations is crucial for analysing gender equality. The EQUAL4EUROPE study focused on three groups: students, staff, and faculty. Among students, women outnumber men in tertiary education in the European Union, particularly in social sciences and humanities, while men dominate STEM fields. In business, administration, and law, women comprise more than half the students, although gender parity varies by programme. Most prestigious European Master’s in Management programmes are close to gender parity, but MBAs have fewer female students. The proportion of women doctoral graduates is increasing. However, in most of the business schools participating in the EQUAL4EUROPE project, the proportion of registered female master’s and PhD students falls behind the European trends for tertiary education. Horizontal gender segregation persists amongst staff, with women overrepresented in administrative roles and men in academic positions. Vertical segregation is present amongst faculty, with women being underrepresented, particularly at higher levels. The average percentage of women faculty in top business schools remains low, and changes over time are minimal.

The slow pace of change in the gender composition of leading European business schools is illustrated in Figure 1. It is derived from an analysis of the 34 European business schools that have appeared in the Financial Times top 100 MBA rankings from 2015 through 2024. The annual increase in female board members over the decade is only 1.63% per annum, while for female faculty this is even lower at 0.93% per annum. In 2024 36.1% of faculty and 44.3% of board members in the 34 European business schools in the ranking are female.

Importantly, these top 100 ranked European business schools perform better than the overall top 100 globally, with 2024 female faculty and board members constituting 33.2% and 34.0%, respectively, and with the annual growth for the two groups being 0.75% and 1.33%, respectively.

Figure 1: Gender composition across Financial Times MBA 100 schools: 2015-2024

Gender Pay Gap

Despite being one of the main principles of gender equality in the European Union, the average unadjusted gender pay gap across the 27 EU countries in 2022 was 12.7%⁵. According to the report, the gender gap is wider for professional, scientific, and technical activities (ranging from1.5% in Romania to 29.0% in Cyprus), and it widens with increasing age. In the EQUAL4EUROPE project, the gender pay gap was calculated for faculty in grades A, B and C⁶, as well as for postdoctoral positions. Data from the schools that provided data showed no gender pay gaps in 25% of all cases, small gender pay gaps in 35%, medium gaps in 20%, and large differences in another 20%.

Integration of the Sex/Gender Dimension in Research and Innovation Organisation and Content

Women’s participation in scientific publications has increased overall but remains low. In Europe, the participation of women as contributors to the production of scientific knowledge has been increasing since 2008 (see: European Commission 2021). However, in the 2015-2019 period, women authors were still underrepresented, being closer to gender parity, 1.0, among early-stage authors, 0.8, and furthest for senior authors, 0.5. The integration of the gender dimension in research content is minimal at the European level. An average of just under 2% of all publications integrated the sex/gender dimension in their content between 2015 and 2019 (European Commission, 2021, p. 214). None of the schools In the EQUAL4EUROPE project have policies to track or support gender integration in research, and only three were able to obtain data on the number of publications per sex. At these three schools, the data that was collected showed a minimal integration of the sex/gender dimension in research through, for instance, the publication of specific gender-related findings. Responding to this, the EQUAL4EUROPE project produced a self-assessment checklist for gender-sensitive research to help researchers reflect on how to integrate the gender dimension across different stages of research projects and introduce gender-sensitive research concepts (EQUAL4EUROPE, 2023b).

Decision-Making Bodies

Women are significantly underrepresented in decision-making roles within higher education. Few European business schools have achieved gender equality on boards, and EQUAL4EUROPE schools show high gender gaps in leadership positions. In its comparative study, the project found that decision-making was one of the areas in which all schools were very far from reaching gender equality. This was also the area where the gender gap was the highest, with a common underrepresentation of women leadership in strategic management committees and total exclusion in several areas at different schools.

Decision-making is one of the areas in which inequality between different genders is particularly salient. The 2023 European average score for power in the Gender Equality Index (where a score of 100 means equality) is the lowest of all domains in the index (59.1)⁷. Similarly, the role of women in decision-making bodies remains very limited in institutions of higher education. The proportion of women heads of institutions in the higher education sector in Europe increased from 21.3% in 2016 to 23.7% in 2019 (see: European Commission, 2021). The picture in European business schools appears far worse. Only three of the 34 European business schools ranked in the 2024 Financial Times top 100 International MBAs have female deans (EM Lyon, Durham University Business School, and Grenoble Ecole de Management)⁸.

Gender Mainstreaming of Policies

While the European Union demands gender equality, achieving it remains challenging. Policies and legislative frameworks are key in supporting and producing structural changes in research institutions. These changes require targeting regular organisations’ policies and procedures, translating abstract commitments into activities, and assessing their impact on female and male employees. The analysis of the policies in the schools of the EQUAL4EUROPE consortium and the legal measures in the six countries show great diversity across contexts and organisations. Few legal obligations are shared, and even when they are, they do not always translate into the adoption of supporting institutional policies. There are also commonalities. Most schools have introduced policies on several areas of inclusion and equality. All schools have legislative frameworks that mandate equal treatment, equal pay, access to maternity and paternity leaves, and prohibition of discrimination. Accordingly, the most widespread policies included equal pay for doctoral students and equal pay policies, parental leaves, family care assistance and childcare cost contributions, access to a health plan, part-time and flexible working hours regulation, objective promotion criteria for researchers and the introduction of a code of conduct, and an office for investigating complaints. Another striking commonality was that most schools lacked policies to achieve equality in the recruitment of female faculty, guarantee a minimum presence of women in decision-making bodies, and increase the integration of the sex/gender dimension in research and innovation. The EQUAL4EUROPE analysis concludes that implementation of gender equality policies is often insufficient.

Gender equality policies are not visible, there are few measures that have been implemented to support and enforce them, and the absence of systematic monitoring does not allow evaluation of progress. Furthermore, other considerable barriers to implementation include institutionalised indifference, unawareness of gender inequality, no comprehension of the gender mainstreaming agenda, and loyalty to pre-existing practices under the assumption that they are legitimate, are common in European research institutions. All of these factors further hinder the implementation of gender policies.

In summary, EQUAL4EUROPE revealed significant gender disparities in six European business schools across various domains, including school composition, pay gaps, research integration, decision-making bodies, and policy implementation. Despite some progress, women remain underrepresented in senior academic roles and leadership positions. Gender-based pay gaps persist, particularly among senior faculty, and the integration of the sex/gender dimension in research is minimal. Additionally, women are significantly underrepresented in decision-making bodies, contributing to a high gender gap in leadership roles. While many schools have introduced gender equality policies, their implementation and enforcement are often inadequate, with a lack of visibility and systematic monitoring hindering progress. Institutional barriers, such as indifference and resistance to change, further impede the advancement of gender equality.

To achieve true gender equality, these institutions must not only adopt comprehensive policies but also pursue their effective implementation, continuous monitoring, and a cultural shift towards recognising and addressing gender biases. Sustained commitment and action are essential for creating a more inclusive and equitable environment. Leadership’s proactive engagement is considered key to achieving this cultural change (Bass and Avolio, 1993).

Role of Leadership in Promoting Gender Equity and Inclusion

Concerningly, the EQUAL4EUROPE research found the phenomenon of gender fatigue is occurring at some peer academic institutions. Previously implemented policies and initiatives have become blunt and less effective than originally hoped. Combatting this requires that leaders actively reengage to ensure that organisational change strategies remain oriented towards more gender-equitable structures, practices and behaviours. Awareness of women’s leadership competency and promoting progressive leadership styles are essential for fostering belonging and reaping its benefits.

EQUAL4EUROPE offers a leadership roadmap for both research and education. In research, the consortium proposed that leadership teams develop practices for researchers to incorporate gender considerations into their selection and design of research topics, advocate for seamlessly integrating gender dimensions into ongoing research projects, promote gender-balanced research teams, and significantly increase support for research focusing on gender-related subjects. Within the education realm, the consortium suggests that leadership should further encourage and incentivise the integration of a gender perspective into teaching methodologies, monitor the distribution of teaching hours and courses between genders across various academic levels, and assess and promote courses that address issues of gender (in)equity.

These findings and recommendations resonate with the long-standing concern for diversity and equity that is embedded within the thinking of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), a key member of the EQUAL4EUROPE consortium. Almost a decade ago, an EFMD publication called for action and reaffirmed that ‘leadership is essential in all diversity initiatives’ Roseberry, Remke, Klæsson and Holgersson, 2016: 36). The report provided several suggestions for both schools and the primary accrediting agencies that are as relevant today.

Few would doubt that leadership and leadership team values can significantly influence organisations. However, as Ciulla (1999: 166) has eloquently stated, influence does not result from what leadership “claims to value but (rather from the) actions they take to demonstrate those values.” In the domains of inclusion and belonging, the need to demonstrate and model values and actions is particularly important because of the importance of leadership for the development of an inclusive culture, especially for communities that are not part of the dominant coalition (Shore and Chung, 2022). Successfully transforming business schools for gender equity and as generally more inclusive organisations requires leadership that understands the positive and negative dynamics that diversity can trigger, that masters task- and people-oriented behaviours, and that has the skills to anticipate constituent needs and respond appropriately (Homan, Gündemir, Buengeler and van Kleef, 2020).

The overall conclusion from the work of the last four years is that without attention from the highest organisational level and an appropriate structural approach to addressing the challenges of creating a gender-inclusive culture, progress will remain tortuously slow with systemic shocks, like the global pandemic, potentially reversing some progress. Importantly, these approaches must include developing comprehensive gender-equality plans (GEPs), establishing rigorous metrics for measuring both stock (current status) and flow (rates of change) across key diversity metrics, and mechanisms for engaging impacted personnel as partners. ‘Belongingness’ can certainly be stimulated (or retarded) at a grassroots level, but business school leaders and their leadership teams are essential for seeding and sustaining it as part of the organisation’s DNA.

Toward sustainable gender equity and organisational inclusion

From the above, it is obvious that advancing gender equity is a journey rather than a destination. In the context of business schools change is needed on many fronts, including in representation, remuneration, content and organisation of work, decision-making bodies, policies and practices, and leadership. A culminating output of the EQUAL4EUROPE project was a handbook for the implementation of gender equality plans by AHMSSBL institutions that address all these aspects, including the challenges in implementation and how to overcome these (EQUAL4EUROPE, 2023c). The project demonstrates that culture eats strategy for breakfast⁹. Implementation is a long and winding road, and the lessons learned from the project can be of great value for schools’ future endeavours.

Despite the research focus of the EQUAL4EUROPE project, insights gained make it abundantly clear that moving to sustainable equity and organisational inclusion requires that organisations focus on more than gender diversity. Business schools need to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion in the journey toward sustainable inclusion for all employees and students, taking diversity in the broadest sense into account. The further important lesson from the EQUAL4PROJECT is reflected in the sentiment behind Paul McCartney’s lyrics to the Beatles The Long and Winding Road hit. Although sustainable inclusion may not be achieved, undertaking the journey certainly provides the promise of hope!

This analogy has been adopted by the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations in building upon the framework that was proposed by USAID¹⁰. As depicted in Figure 2, the Centre identifies five different phases in the transformation toward sustainable organisational (gender) inclusion. Different challenges manifest in each phase as the organisation attempts the climb towards sustainable inclusion and a sense of belonging for all.

Figure 2: Five phases toward sustainable organisational transformation

Internationally, business schools can benefit from building upon the EQUAL4EUROPE gender equality approach when diagnosing their advancement toward sustainable inclusion and addressing specific challenges they face. School leadership, and those specifically tasked with coordinating efforts to achieve sustainable inclusion, will find identifying the current position or phase in their progression provides additional focus to these efforts as well as an indication of gaps between the perceptions and expectations of the various stakeholders—students, staff, faculty, alumni, and corporate clients. Given the adage that ‘we are what we measure’, ECWO is working on the development of an inclusion gap instrument (IGI) designed to advance inclusion and develop ‘belongness’. The instrument will quantify employee perceptions of inclusion across several dimensions and provide direction about which of the dimensions is considered most important. Leadership can then appropriately focus the organisation’s efforts and resources in ways likely to pay the highest dividends. The theoretically-grounded instrument can play a key role in an organisation’s efforts to continually evaluate and transparently report on its inclusive culture and the progress it is, and wishes, to make. Including the IGI as an essential element of tracking ‘organisation health’, will induce a measure of organisation reflexivity that is generally missing from enthusiastic but ad hoc approaches. In particular, the instrument will ‘pressure’ leadership to give more sustained attention to creating the needed ‘sense of belonging’ amongst employees.

Conclusion

The journey toward sustainable gender equity and inclusion (culture) in business schools requires a comprehensive approach that addresses persistent disparities in representation, remuneration, and decision-making, while simultaneously integrating gender perspectives into research and education. Although European business schools have made some progress incorporating gender equity and inclusion into their programmes and research—and they may even claim to be ahead of other parts of the world in certain areas—they remain a considerable distance from being able to claim that their cultures are equitable and inclusive. Leadership commitment remains crucial to their forward trajectory. Individual leaders and leadership teams must model inclusive values, implement robust gender equality plans, and actively dismantle institutional barriers. Tools like the Inclusion Gap Instrument (IGI) can help assess, guide progress, and foster a culture of belonging for all and continuous learning. Ultimately, sustained efforts in these areas will create more equitable and inclusive environments, benefiting women, other disadvantaged identities, and the broader academic community.

In his seminal article entitled, Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices, Sumantra Ghoshal argued that the influence of business education cannot be overstated. We must recognise that business school graduates are significantly impacted by the education we provide. The shift from a business education model grounded homo economicus and in an ideology that “is essentially grounded in a set of pessimistic assumptions about both individuals and institutions” (Ghoshal, 2005:77) to one that further stresses collaboration and inclusion as a bedrock for building sustainable enterprise and society is long overdue. As Ghoshal (2005) and others have argued, the double hermeneutic nature of the social sciences has the potential to make theories of management and organisations self-realising.

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References

¹ European Institute for Gender Equality, 2024. Gender Equality in Academic and Research: Gear Tool, https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/terms-and-definitions?language_content_entity=en, accessed August 1, 2024.

² https://eige.europa.eu/ accessed June 3, 2024.
³ https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Gender_pay_gap_statistics accessed July 27, 2024.
⁴ For the purposes of this study, we use the Financial Times International MBA ranking over the decade 2015 -2024.

⁵ https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/page/EARN_GR_GPGR2CT, accessed August 8, 2024.
⁶ The EU Framework classifies researchers leading their area or field of research as Grade A, established researchers with a measure of independence as Grade B, and recognized researchers who are terminally qualified but not yet independent as Grade C (Frølich, Wendt, Reymert, Tellmann, Elken, Kyvik, Vabø, and Larsen, 2018).

⁷ https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2023, accessed August 3, 2024.
⁸ These data were obtained from a Google search for the name and/or photograph of the dean of each of the 34 business schools undertaken on July 28, 2024.

⁹ This quote is generally attributed to Peter Drucker although no specific citation exists to confirm this.
¹⁰ https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/2021-USAID-Engendering-Industries-Accelerated-Program-Organisational-Assessment.pdf, accessed July 30, 2024.